Guild Wars 2

The flaws of current mastery system
Long story short – if HoT is to be the mold for each next expansion, then some fixes are required, before the bad gets carried along with the good to the next expansion.

The mastery system is one such case– great idea, misunderstood implementation. We all know what happened – too few maps, too few masteries, game is an MMORPG = anet gated the later masteries with insane exp walls that aren’t fun or engaging at all.
Too fixed order of things also isn’t helping. Wanna ley line glide? Though luck – full glider mastery or go home!
And finally the way of accumulating mastery exp which is by event grinds, more event grinds and if you’re done with grinding events, then just events grinding.

That’s not what a mastery system should be. In my opinion a mastery should entail a steady, progressive journey full of small stepping stones that are relevant to what you’re trying to master, leading to the final goal of becoming one yourself.

And not a set of few “hiccups” that happen once every 100 years granting you superpowers in an instant, all unlockable in the same way.

Ok, nuff of that. Let’s talk about how it can be done right.

More small steps, less steep walls
Rather then current “master it with one point + your arm and a leg” system we should have a series of smaller, far cheaper steps, that gradually accumulate to push you from newbie in certain aspect to relatively competent all the way to true master of art. Let’s take a look at an example featuring updrafts from gliding mastery line.

Right now you put one point into it and BAM! You know all there is to know about updrafts!
How about we split this up into many more, smaller steps that actually feel like we’re mastering something, and not bribing our way to insta-win with one unlock?

Smaller steps example – updraft gliding:

1st point – you learn to use updrafts, but it costs heavier stamina burn then normal gliding when inside it (after all this is the inexperienced you inside a strong air current and not perfect 0 wind conditions)

2nd point – you enhance your grip on the glider reducing stamina burn to normal glide value when inside updraft

3rd point – your learn to angle your glider better vs the wind for a faster lift when inside an updraft. Earlier you were struggling for your dear life, now you’re more experienced and starting to take some control

4th point – you perfect your glider grip and body balance when updrafting and lose no stamina when in an updrafts

5th point – now that you’ve mastered taking advantage of updrafts you learn to actually relax and recover stamina while getting updrafted.

6th step – your finishing touch is learning how to ride the winds updrafts create letting you take advantage of updrafts you’d normally miss, as long as you’re in close proximity (for example you’re flying 5 meters below the lowest part of an updraft. Earlier you’d just keep on flying, now you manage to “hook up” and get pulled in).

And there you go. Make each of these steps around 4-6 times cheaper then the original one point, and what we have here is something that feels like a learning process while also giving you a short term goal to look forward to (the next mastery unlock that is not THAT far away, unlike what we have now).

More choice!
Sub-lines. Another aspect of mastery system I’d like fixed is that current lines offer little choice. They’re too rigid. Wanna ley line glide? Tough luck, it’s at the very end of glider mastery line!

What I’d like to see is each mastery line branch out into sub lines after meeting initial conditions (for example learning to glide at all in glider’s case).
Each sub-line would deal with certain aspect of it’s parent mastery and each be equally available from the start. In glider’s case we could have following sub-lines:

- combat gliding (stealth, damage mitigation when flying, some boons when landing etc)
- updrafts (already covered those)
- glider upgrades (new line, mechanical adjustment for the glider)
- etc.

Point is, you can dive into given aspect of your mastery right away instead of being forced to cope with current fixed order of things. While each sub-line would indeed have it’s own fixed order of things (well you always start at bottom, then climb up to master level, right?) at least you’d be in control of what you actually learn first and what you’ll put off for later. Wanna ley line now, while learning combat gliding later? Ok, knock yourself out, now the road is clear!

Master it the natural way
Finally I would like to see masteries being leveled not only with general exp, but also with activities that actually involve said mastery! Riding updrafts should give out small chunks of exp for updraft mastery. Doing events that help out pact engineers could push forward glider upgrades sub-line. Using Nuloch wallows could help you become a better mole faster

With these changes on board I believe mastery system would become a likeable, and steady part of new xpansion experience, rather then the high hanging fruit that makes majority of players cringe at the mere thought of endless, unrewarding grind until they finally can feel any difference at all once they get there.

This sounds like a horrible idea. All it seems is that you want to drag the mastery system out even longer with no real reason other than you don’t like the current progression. But you aren’t even looking at it correctly. The Gliding mastery line is a mastery line for gliding, not for catching updrafts. Learning to catch an updraft is one step in mastering gliding, there’s no reason to break that up into much more annoying chunks to drag it out.

The only thing I agree with is that you should gain some mastery experience if you are actually doing the action. Gliding should give you some gliding experience, trivial amounts. Trying to use bouncing mushrooms should give you trivial amounts of experience towards that mastery if you haven’t earned it yet. Eating adrenal/speed mushrooms should give you a condi (probably poison) if you don’t have the mastery, but should give you experience towards it as you are actually training your stomach to eat them.

I believe you misunderstood my text. Firstly while there would be many more mastery unlocks to get, each would cost far less then current ones. The idea is to keep them a long term goal, but one with frequent updates & upgrades instead of week long grinds before something finally changes.

Also the idea with updraft specialty is for it to be a sub line of gliding mastery line. Available right after you learn how to glide at all, and not competing with it’s parent.
With sub-lines such as updrafts, ley-line gliding, combat gliding etc, you choose what to master first, after your initial glider mastery unlock. Want ley-line gliding a.s.a.p? Np you can start there ignoring updrafts, combat gliding etc. You will need to put some points into it for full effect but it’s still getting ley-line gliding for around 1/6 of the price you’d need in this system.

This makes it far more your choice with your consequences of such, while still requiring time, effort and dedication to fully master all of it.

I think this sounds like a very logical incorporation of the mentality behind the Collection system implemented in HoT; make it a journey that fits the nature of the reward. Frankly, I like the way this sounds much better, though at the end of the day its still the same type of exp wall.

Some ways around that: link certain masteries to collection-type quests where the goal is not to find an item but to complete a certain action/challenge.

Example: Glide X Distance to gain level 1 upgrade to basic gliding (stamina boost), use x amount of stamina points to unlock lean techniques, use lean techniques to unlock advanced gliding techniques, etc.

The masteries that are linked to combat should likely stay a measure of experience, but this way the masteries that are affixed to actual skills rather than kills would come with actually practicing said skill.

EDIT: This could also replace gathering freaking mastery points to unlock stuff that you’ve already earned. Instead, when you’ve demonstrated the required knowledge to increase your skill with a certain mastery, you’d actually get it.

I disagree with exp wall being same type. It’s quite the opposite. In current system there are few, very steep (huge exp needed) walls arranged in fixed order.

In my version there are numerous much smaller walls, with greater ability for you to arrange the order you climb them to your own preference.

It’s not about changing how long it all takes and what’s at the end, it’s about changing what’s in the middle – a constant, steady flow of new upgrades and skills that keeps you motivated and close friends with mastery system, rather then once-in a blue moon visit to the mastery panel after days of barren, unrewarding grind.

EDIT:
As for the for unlocks well i’m on the both sides. Doing it with exp lets ppl who hate but need certain mastery to get it the generic way, while practicing a lot with it is natural and would let ppl who like doing it practice it the way they like.

I would like to see masteries more like what they were intended to substitute for: leveling past 80. Right now, if you lack the # of mastery points you can have enough experience but you can not gain the mastery.

What is the argument? That I need to do some random challenge first? Okay, I did it but spent the point elsewhere …. prove me wrong.

Mastery XP = good, does what is expected
Mastery points = drown them with fire

I just wish that it did not take forever to fill up your XP bar. Sure, I get it’s a continuation of post-80 “leveling”, and therefore each “level” would have more XP than the last but…seriously, you are forced to do meta events, or just events/dungeons in general to fill up your Mastery bars. That does not sound fun. Even to get from level 79-80 took less time for me. I think also the HoT maps really turn me off, so I therefore don’t engage in them, and therefore don’t get the XP. I don’t want to grind meta events over and over, due to the huge amount of XP there is needed for each “level”.

And, I get it, once you unlock Masteries on one toon, they are available for all toons and you don’t need to do them ever again. But just getting there is difficult for some people, including myself. I tend to spend more time on my under-level-80 toons than my 80s because 1-70 is more interesting and engaging for me.